I stared once down
Through shifting mud
To a cold, still woman
And rode upon her breath.

Her deep rooted legs stretched far behind me
The soles of her feet pressed hard
Against my old beginnings.

It is here I await the next inspiration
The surrounding cataract glances of great hunched birds
Causes the sorry mist to groan
Like the certainty of night
Low and hard on the sunken quartz.

And back she stares
With two vast pools
Her hips sit wide as life itself
When I was four
At the edge of the hungry well
I stared once down.